812 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



E. R. Root 



Editor 



A. I. Root 



Editor Home Department 



H. H. Root 



Ass't Editor 



Department Editors— Db. C. C. Miller, J. A. Green, Prof. A. J. Cook, J. E. Crane, Louls H. Scholl, 



G. M. DOOLITTLE, R. F. HOLTERMANN, " STENOG." 



CONTENTS OF JUNE 15, 1907 



HONEY MARKET 808 



STRAY STRAWS 821 



EDITORIAL 823 



Alsike Feed Free 823 



Sweet Clover Commended 823 



Dandelions, to Photograph 823 



Benton's Trip for Bees 824 



Foul Brood in Germany 824 



Buckwheat, Pure i 824 



Hive-covers 825 



Parafflne vs. Ceresine 826 



Weather Prospects 826 



Food Laws in the South 826 



GLEANINGS FROM THE PACIFIC COAST. . 827 



Irrigation in California 827 



Pollen 827 



Pollination 828 



Sage Bloom 828 



BEE-KEEPING AMONG THE ROCKIES 828 



Sweet Clover in 285 Days 828 



Spraying, Time of 829 



BEE-KEEPING IN THE SOUTHWEST 830 



Color of Honeys 830 



Colony Records.. 830 



Moving Bees with Open Entrances 830 



Bees, Atchley's..' 831 



Shade-boards. Heavy 831 



Trays to Move Bees 831 



CONVERSATIONS WITH DOOLITTLE 832 



Honey Plants and Flo wers 832 



Five-banders not Hardy 833 



GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE 8.34 



Handling Bees in Closed-end Frames 834 



Full Sheets of Foundation 838 



Dandelions for Bees 839, 842 



Sectional Hives 843 



Clipping Queens 844 



Apiary. Building up 847 



Comb and Extracted Honey from Same Super. . .848 



Selection of Breeding Queen 850 



HEADS OF GRAIN 850 



Outdoor vs. Indoor Feeding 851 



Caged Queens in Upper Stories 851 



Loaf Sugar for Winter 851 



Entrances, Upper 851 



OUR HOMES 852 



HIGH-PRESSURE GARDENING 854 



Indian Runner Ducks 854 



Green Fly in Greenhouse 854 



Strawberries in Florida 855 



Weeds. Killing . . 856 



Dandelions, Killing 856 



We wish to call your attention to the Swarthmore 

 outfits advertised elsewhere in these pages. If you 

 have not tried your hand at rearing a few queens by 

 this system you have missed a good deal of real en- 

 joyment. You may not make any money by the op- 

 eration (you can if you wish), but the fun of it to a 

 bee-keeper is beyond expression in figures. It is 

 the romantic part of bee-keeping, though it has also 

 much to do with the practical side as well. There 

 is also another reason why you should try modern 

 queen-rearing. It is this: If you don't experiment a 

 little in this line the other bee-keepers whom you 

 meet will call you an old fogy, whatever that is. 



THE trade in bees AND QUEENS. 



So far this has been a hard season on the breeders 

 of bees and queens, for several reasons. The weath- 

 er has been unfavorable — probably the worst we 

 have had for twenty-live years, and this state of af- 

 fairs prevails over the entire country. Owing also 

 to heavy losses in springing, the demands on the 

 breeders have been unusually heavy — more, proba- 

 bly than thev could fulfill had the spring been mild. 

 Another disagreeable feature has been the phenom- 

 enally nice weather for a day or two, followed by 

 snowing or freezing weather. This caused the 

 breeders to promise in the first place to give early 

 delivery and then disappoint their customers. Ow- 

 ing to the cold unsettled weather the quality of the 

 queens has also been impaired, for it is generally 

 conceded that bright nice weather not only produces 

 better stock, but the color of the bees is actually 

 lighter and brighter — a fact not generally known. 

 We trust, therefore, the breeders will be treated 

 leniently, as all these drawbacks are beyond their 

 control, tox there is no way of getting round the 

 weather clerk. As a general thing, our breeders are 

 very painstaking and careful, and are desirous of 

 pleasing their trade in every way possible: but they 

 are subject to natural causes. There may be 'a few 

 careless breeders, but they cut no figure. 



The foregoing may seem rather hard, but all rural 

 industries are subject to these uncertainties. 



A NEW TOOL. 



If there is any thing bee-keepers dearly love it is 

 a new apicultural tool to experiment with. In this 

 respect they are all Yankees, to the manor born. 

 Next to this they like to argue with each other as 

 to the merits or demerits of every thing new in bee- 

 keeping; and the bee-keeper who does not try the 

 latest inventions along this line is looked down on 

 by the other members of the craft. 



We are reminded of this in reading the advertise- 

 ment in this issue of E. H. Dewey, Great Barring- 

 ton, Mass., in which he calls attention to the merits 

 of his foundation-fastening machine for starters in 

 sections. Mr. Dewey's invention is something en- 

 tirely new and quite ingenious. Send for Ms circu- 

 lar. 



We desire to call particular attention to the ad't of 

 the ElectricWheel Co., of Quincy.Ill., whose specialty 

 is wagon-wheels made entirely of steel. These wheels 

 are a vast improvement on the old-style high wooden 

 wheels with narrow tires. Naturally steel wheels 

 are far more durable than wooden. They are less 

 expense for repairs, for very dry or very wet weather 

 has no effect on them. They are wide-tired, there- 

 fore do not sink into the soft earth as narrow tires 

 do. and therefore economize the work of the horses or 

 mules. They do not destroy the roa'ds as harrow- 

 tire wheels do. They run easy, for. being made en- 

 tirely of steel, they run true and smooth. But they 

 have a tremendous advantage in that they are only 

 half the height of the old style. This makes a 

 wagon fitted out with these wheels very much easier 

 to load, and handier in every way They are par- 

 ticularly useful in the harvest field for almost any 

 crop. For cane and corn crops there is nothing bet- 

 ter. They are handy for hauling bees, as they are 

 easily loaded, and run smoothly. This company 

 also make wagons fitted with their wheels to ac- 

 commodate those who require a new wagon, but 

 they sell a great many sets separately from the 

 wagon. They sell many sets of these wheels to 

 residents of foreign countries, and more particularly 

 so in Cuba and other tropical countries where the 

 conditions are very trying. They are not as expen- 

 sive as might be supposed. Write for prices. 



